The choice of financial performance measures is one of the most critical challenges facing organizations. The accounting-based measures of financial performance have been viewed as inadequate, as firms began focusing on shareholder value as the primary long-term objective of the organization. Hence, value-based metrics were devised that explicitly incorporate the cost of capital into performance calculations. Despite the increasing emphasis on these value-based measures, no definitive evidence exists of which metric works better than others, and on the extent to which any of them is superior to traditional accounting measures. In this scenario, the objective of this book is contributing to the ongoing dialogue on the appropriateness of different financial performance measures, by providing a systematic and updated review of the major value-based measures, by highlighting their respective strengths and weaknesses and by comparing the main international empirical evidence on their effectiveness. This book can be a powerful tool for guiding managers and graduate students in the “tangled forest” of the existing metrics, by providing them with the quick, but adequate knowledge for consistently adopting them.

Foundations of Airport Economics and Finance analyzes the impact key economic indicators play on an airport's financial performance. As rapidly changing dynamics, including liberalization, commercialization and globalization are changing the nature of airports worldwide, this book presents the significant challenges facing current and future airports. Airports are evolving from quasi-monopolies to commercial companies operating in a global environment, with ever-increasing passenger and cargo volumes and escalating security costs that put a greater strain on airport systems. This book highlights the critical changes that airports are experiencing, providing a basic understanding of both the economic and financial aspects of the air transport industry. - Identifies the economic roots of airport financial performance and how the interplay of its major parameters affects profitability - Bridges the gap between the latest airport academic research and real-world airport financial management - Covers cases and scenarios of numerous airports from around the world - Includes learning aids, such as chapter introductions and summaries, glossary and appendices

Conference proceedings - Multidisciplinary Academic Conference on Economics, Management and Marketing in Prague 2014 (MAC-EMM 2014)

Relationship marketing and customer relationship management (CRM) can be jointly utilised to provide a clear roadmap to excellence in customer management: this is the first textbook to demonstrate how it can be done. Written by two acclaimed experts in the field, it shows how an holistic approach to managing relationships with customers and other key stakeholders leads to increased shareholder value. Taking a practical, step-by-step approach, the authors explain the principles of relationship marketing, apply them to the development of a CRM strategy and discuss key implementation issues. Its up-to-date coverage includes the latest developments in digital marketing and the use of social media. Topical examples and case studies from around the world connect theory with global practice, making this an ideal text for both students and practitioners keen to keep abreast of changes in this fast-moving field.

Creating Value in Financial Services is a compilation of state-of-the-art views of leading academics and practitioners on how financial service firms can succeed in today's competitive environment. The book is based on two conferences held at New York University: the first, `Creating Value in Financial Services', held in March 1997, and the second, `Operations and Productivity in Financial Services', in April 1998. The book is essentially designed to be a compendium of leading edge thinking and practice in the management of financial services firms. There is no book today that has this focus. It contains ideas that can apply to other service industries. Topics addressed are increasingly important worldwide as the financial services industries consolidate and search for innovative new directions and ways to create value in a fiercely competitive environment.

The innovative and unique feature of this book is that it does not contain theoretical concept that cannot be translated into practice. This second volume expands the analysis of the strategic decisions, emphasizing the importance of a sustainable competitive advantage, and proposing an integrated conceptual and operational framework (the “Strateco Dashboard”), that complements and significantly improves the recent and well-known Blue Ocean approach to strategy development. Finally, it addresses the measurement of the performance of strategy in terms of value creation, highlighting differences and similarities, as well as strengths and weaknesses, of the main metrics. Furthermore, it proposes a comprehensive and operational framework for the assessment of the financial feasibility of strategy, through the measurement of the impact of the planned strategic moves on financial needs and the evaluation of their financial sustainability.

The innovative and unique feature of this book is that it does not contain theoretical concept that cannot be translated into practice. The model which introduces this volume sets the stage for addressing the major phases of the strategic management process: environmental analysis, strategy formulation and development, strategy evaluation and control. Its conceptual and operational structure is described in the first part, together with a practically oriented definition of strategy, and a brief discussion of the logic and benefits of the judgmental modeling approach to decision making. The second part critically addresses the classical approaches to the analysis of the external and internal environmental factors, which have an impact on the “functioning” of the basic model, i.e. the structural characteristics of the industry context, and the companies’ technical, organizational, financial, and human resources, including the translation into operational models of otherwise rather theoretical concepts.